Hope Bella is ok. Thinking of you both x

A&E is mainly staffed by junior doctors, some of whom have only been fully qualified for weeks rather than a GP who has had years and years of training and experience.

They will only refer to a paediatric doctor if they think the child needs admission or observation.

They often give antibiotics willy nilly due to their inexperience.

I work in the health profession and have first hand experience of A&E.

Yes it's great for emergencies but you often get a different second opinion which may not be the right one!

hope your LO gets better
lots of hugs
xxx

Hope Bella is ok x

can i ask where you got this info from as, as a nurse this goes way against my instincts.
babys are more suseptable to having seizures with a high temp and i would def be more inclined to go with the others views of 38.0c being a high temp and needing to seek medical advise (although agree that the hospital would be ott as first port of call)


hope bella is picking up and the hospital are able to reasure you.

Maybe we're lucky in our area then but they seem to make the right decision and refer to the paeds when they feel it necessary. When the GP surgery is closed and your baby is ill, then A&E is the best choice.

All docs can make a mistake I'm sure but I'd rather have my LO checked out than leave it and hope for the best.

A&E staff were very good and very thorough when Daisy was ill and then admitted to hospital. They were concerned immediately because her temperature was above 38 and she was so young.

I hope Bella is feeling better hun and that you're okay. Thinking of you both .

We're back!


Last night i posted i was going to A&E but called NHS Direct first and they said they would have to call me back as they were busy, then they did and refered me to the out of hours docs, then they called me back and told me to go to hospital! (waste of my time calling them methinks) Meanwhile Bell'as temp went up to 39.4! I started panicking and rushed to the docs (forgot to put her socks on! :-/ ) and my sister met me there. I was told me to go to the badger clinic which is for children and was seen right away by a doctor, not a paediatrition.

The doctor looked her over and said she had a viral infection and to go home.
I broke down into tears and shouted at him i would not be told its a viral infection and to go home to have a baby who won't feed and when she does, vomits everywhere! And that also has a temp!

He very reluctantly said 'i could refer you to the paediatrition but he will tell you exactly the same as me' so i said i would like to see him and does it with someone who knows what they are talking about.
The doc was all funny with me (fair enough as i had insulted him) but he gave me a letter to take to the childrens ward.

So, went over to the childrens ward and luckily for me it was empty, so had two nurses and a paediatrition fussing around Bella. They checked her over and said her temp was worrying and she couldn't leave with a temp like that. Though she wasn't dehydrated yet she also can't go home until they can see she's keeping down solids. So they told me to give her a few minutes feed, which i did, then she vomited it back up. And then again, and again.

They were talking about putting her on a drip which scared me but luckily it didn't come to that.
Bella was sooooo tired and was screaming this very strange scream which i hadn't heard from her before which worried me. She continued to sick up feeds or flat out refuse them. The paediatrition said she must have a nasty stomach bug which could get serious so would need to be monitored.

The nurse tried to get her medicine which Bella sicked back up all over her :-/
It was getting very worrying for a bit.
So then in the night i gave her a 2 minute feed which she managed to keep down and she went back to sleep. Then again i woke her and gave her a nother minute feed and she kept that down. And then in the morning she had a couple of minutes feed and she kept that down.
By the morning she was acting more like herself and temp had gone down to 36.7!! :-)
So was very happy about that and we were allowed to go home!

Since then i was a little silly and gave her a 5 minute feed (she seemed soooo hungry) and she has thrown that up all over my sofa :-/ but her temp is at 37.5 at the moment so at least that seems to be ok. I've been given a card by the hospital which says we're allowed to be admitted immediently if i think anything gets worse or i'm worried about anything. Though i would like to keep her at home as much as possible as new places seem to frighten her.

All in all she's ok, very grumpy and clingy (but who isn't when they are ill!) but if i think if i keep up at the little and often feeds then hopefully she'll be getting something in her! My boobs are massive and full and hurting because she's not feeding as much, as worried my supply my depleat! Am also worried as she's quite a small baby as it is (inbetween 9th and 25th percentile) and don't like the thought of her getting any smaller! :-/

Am very annoyed about the hospital doctor who told me it's a viral infection and to go home. I might complain. If i hadn't insisted on seeing a paediatrition then i would have gone home with a baby throwing up everywhere and worried myself sick.

Thank you everyone for your help, love and support!!
Though we're not out the woods yet, i'm hoping Bellas temp will stay down and so will her food! But will let everyone know how she is doing.

Thanks again xxx

Oh bless her. I hope she gets better soon!
If you can express off some milk to ease the discomfort, hopefully she will be back to her usual hungry self asap.
Good for you putting your foot down with the Dr as well.

Can you pump off some milk after you feed her? Sounds like she is managing the wattery fore milk but not anything more substantial. Means she is thirsty rather than hungry. In FF babies we would be giving them water rather than milk, which is pretty much what she is doing by taking tiny feeds.

She will be better soon and then suddenly she will be famished and wanting fed, fed, fed to make up for it!

I'm so glad things seem to be looking up. Good for you for sticking to your guns!! You must have been so worried. Big hugs to you both. Xxx